Not debatable: Obama stumbles

DENVER — It had been nearly 1,400 days since Barack Obama strode onto a debate stage — and it showed in a major way Wednesday at the first presidential debate of 2012.

Obama, who has spent most of the past four years speaking to hand-picked interviewers or lecturing audiences required to remain mostly mute while he spoke, struggled to shake off the rust in a jostling debate environment that gave his opponent Mitt Romney parity, equal time — and a new lease on political life.

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There were no game-changing gaffes and the debate was a substantive break from months of caustic negative campaigning on both sides, including lengthy discussions over deficit reduction and entitlement reform that seemed to yield hints of common ground — and also seemed to elevate both men.

Yet even that was inherently bad news for Obama, who had hoped to convince voters he was the only possible president onstage.

Romney’s aides and surrogates sprinted into the spin room to offer effusive assessments of their candidate’s performance, and Fox News contributor Juan Williams was caroling “Massacre! Massacre!” to himself as he bounded out of the men’s restroom. Obama’s team didn’t meet the press for a full 10 minutes — and one top Democrat, asked to say the best thing about the president’s performance, said Obama has been “just working to maintain cool and be reassuring” in an email to POLITICO.

“Look, Romney was always going to have a good night on style points,” conceded Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, who still judged his boss to be the winner. “I’ve been telling you guys that for a very long time, but look, we won this debate tonight because we talked directly to the American people about plans. Romney couldn’t do it. He stayed on defense the entire time. He couldn’t lay out a tax plan that made any sense. You know he spent a bunch of time trying to defend his Medicare positions in states like Ohio and Florida; that’s gonna be a real problem for him.”

Romney wasn’t perfect but he kept his awkward outbursts — which have plagued him throughout his career — to a minimum.

One cringe-worthy moment came when he tried to justify his proposed cut to PBS, which employs moderator Jim Lehrer and Sesame Street characters.

“I’m sorry, Jim,” he said, reprising a standard stump speech line. “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That’s No. 1.”

Yet Romney appeared to provide a flailing candidacy with new direction. A smiling, relaxed former governor, confident and under control after 27 debates over the past 18 months, seemed to strike a balance he has thus far failed to achieve, attacking Obama and softening his own image and positions.

“I think all of us will conclude that from the opening statement on, Mitt Romney won the debate, and so my sense is that, as often happens in first debates, which incidentally are always the most significant, you’ll see the needle move a few points,” said former Florida GOP Chairman Al Cardenas, now a lobbyist and Romney surrogate.

“I’m not saying it’s decisive in the campaign, but it’s a tremendous progress for Mitt. My sense is the race is practically tied now. By next week when you wake up, you’ll see Mitt probably forging ahead in a few of these swing states that are pretty close now. And so the president is going to have to re-evaluate what his strategy is going to be.”